News of the Western Belize Recreational Area, about 500 square miles of waterfalls, caves, Mayan ruins and pyramids, Belize Alps, foothills, ranches and farms, tourist accomodations of all types and description, tours and expeditions for vacationers and visitors. Even a small growing expatriate retirement group of people from different countries. In Belize, this is where it is happening, all the things that are fun and even serious, with a climate of ETERNAL SPRING.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Imagine a tree in your backyard that will meet all your nutritional needs, take care of you medicinally, and purify your water for you. This tree actually exists now in Belize. For centuries, the natives of northern India and many parts of Africa have known of the many benefits of Moringa oleifera. Its uses are as unique as the names it is known by, such as clarifier tree, horseradish tree and drumstick tree (referring to the large drumstick shaped pods) and in East Africa it is called "mother's best friend”. Virtually every part of the tree can be used. Native only to the foothills of the Himalayas, it is now widely cultivated in Africa, Central and South America, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and the Philippines. This tree, though little known in the Western world, is nutritional dynamite. There are literally hundreds of uses for this tree. Just check with Greg Clark who is growing this tree in Belize for more details.

Greg Clark HAS INTRODUCED INTERCROPPING AS AN EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECT HE HAS INFORMATION AND PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE ON.

One of the problems with vegetable growing is shade. Shade cloth is imported and costs money in foreign exchange. Greg has imported MORINGA SEEDS from India. The tree seems to be an answer to providing shade to vegetable growing. Moringa can be planted from a cutting. Shove it in the ground 18 inches and a tree will grow. The root is a deep water seeking tap root. He speaks of the amazing rate of growth of the MORINGA tree. You can get a 20 foot tree in one year. You can plant vegetables between MORINGA trees from when they are four months old. What Greg does is plant the trees in rows 10 feet apart. So you can drive a tractor down one way, but cross wise you plant vegetables between the MORINGA trees in double sets of 4' x 4' vegetable beds going the other way. What you do is attach boards as lattice between ( be sure you use hardwoods ) the trees, nailed up. Around the tree trunk area itself you plant climbing vegetables. Between, you plant companion vegetables. The tree attracts honey bees, which in turn pollinate your vegetable patches. The tree also provides the shade you need and you save a lot of money not having to build green houses. By putting up cuttings in plastic bags, should you wish to fell the trees for wholesale plowing of the ground, or field, you can do so easily and then re-plant. The MORINGA TREE is low density and makes good compost with a high nitrogent content. It will decompose in quick time in your compost pile.

EDUCATIONAL DISCONNECT BETWEEN BUILDING AND DEVELOPING THE NATION OF BELIZE AND THE PRODUCT OF OUR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.

There is a disconnect between the product of our two Universities in Belize and the NEEDS of our society in building a NATION, DEVELOPMENT, and fitting them the realities of how to be entrepreneurs.

There does not seem to be anybody teaching how to form Limited Liability Companies and register same. Nor the intricacies of keeping control of the Board of Directors, when you SELL SHARES to outsiders, or family. There does not seem to be anybody teaching how to raise SHARE VENTURE RISK CAPITAL by using these companies by selling SHARES to others, to get over the START UP EXPERIMENTAL HUMP that is experienced while you figure out, how the problems evolve and how to solve them. START UPs are expensive and for this you need SHARE INVESTMENT capital. Because sometimes you FAIL and other times temporary failures can be overcome, given TIME, EXPERIMENTATION and MONEY to do so. You can be stymied by simple things. Some Customs Broker in the USA that wants a bribe from your import agent in Miami, or Texas or something that you knew nothing about and did not plan for. Thus leaving a customs agent punishment of letting your perishable product spoil on the docks. In losing the first few shipments, the lesson of paying a bribe becomes very expensive for example to a person working on loans. ( it happens ) Nothing is simple until you learn how. It is the job of the Univesities in Belize at this ERA and in this TIME to teach young people wishing to go into business how to start up their business with SHARE CAPITAL and not LOANS. It is also the responsibility of Universities in Belize to insist on term papers when students in business are doing degrees, to do business plans and do a thorough workup and study on export FISH FINGERS for instance, or ORCHIDS, or NEEM OIL barrels, or anything else. You can be sure the unexpected will happen and it will cost MONEY. To teach these things, our Universities in Belize have to get more practical.

BELIZE HAS CHANGED FROM A HUNTER GATHERER ECONOMY OF MY YOUTH, TO THE EDUCATED MORE COMPLICATED CASH EXCHANGE SOCIETY OF TODAY. THIS IS MUCH MORE COMPLEX.

There is a lot of news about young men getting into crime and violence. There have been studies on early teen pregnancy and we have programs dealing with sex and AIDS prevention, the use of condoms. What is not mentioned, is that young males in their TEENS from age 14 to 22 years, are producing in a natural way, sperm that they must ejaculate between six and twelve times a day. This is nature's way, was built in humans for the hunter gatherer society, not the changed society of Belize that we have today. The rules in my youth were plain. A young man had to have his house and boat, on the Great Barrier Reef islands. In the mainland of Belize, a young man had to have a house and tools to compete for marriage and a wife. Nature has it that both girls and boys cannot resist SEX for reproduction and preservation of the species ( homo sapiens ) early in life. Just facts we have to deal with. That said; young men today, particularly more so in urban town areas, find themselve FATHERS at an early age. Often in their teens. They are not equipped to deal with the society that is Belize today, except in some rural parts. This puts them at a disadvantage economically. They cannot earn enough to pay rent, they cannot support the wife, or girlfriend with money for the needs of babies and children. Abstinence is a nice word, but not practical most of the time. Young males are blasted with hormones and enzymes and fantasies of SEX from 14 years of age onward. The ejaculation of semen, six to twelve times a day can be done through masturbation, but it is the nature of this man handling of the penis and the pumping action and response of the nerve endings in the bulbous glands that DEMAND more and more they find a sex partner. Preferably a female. The height of sexual reproduction on males is 19 years of age sex studies have shown. By age 30 the ejaculation and production of semen drops to three or four times a day. By age forty five, it drops to two or three times a day and by age sixty it drops to three or four times a week. The sex drive in males acts on the brain and overpowers inhibitions, morals and rules. Yet economically in this society of Belize today, they are unprepared for the economic and financial responsibilities. Nor will they ever be, unless they are successful in practicing abstinence and rely solely on masturbation for relief from the demands of NATURE on the body to relieve the pressures of hormones and enzymes on the BRAIN. Consequently, many of the disadvantaged youth find themselves forced into a life of crime, to find money to respond to the pleas for material things that a young mother needs for her and her baby, or babies. I do not know the answer to this problem, but most of our male criminals are responding to the need to provide money for their girlfriends, or wives, to supply their needs in a society for which they are not fitted educationally. I do not see this segment of the problem of young male crime tackled by the social studies programs trying to come to grips with the problems of young male criminals in our society. What to do about early teen pregnancy and young males responding to reproductive drives they cannot handle, but ill equipped to follow up in a changing society and world.

I wonder if this is the first time ever? There was a video clip on the news showing over 30 and maybe 40 candidates in the police ordinary constable ranks sitting at desks in a port city classroom, taking a civil service exam for promotions to middle level management positions. Corporals, Seargants and Inspector positions. From a quick glimpse of the papers, it did not seem that these were SECRET NUMBERED exam papers. Nevertheless it means there is change in the police department for the National news. A good start!

My daughter Mrs. Sharon Auxillou Urscheler up in Redlands, Florida is in the nursery business and landscaping. Been in the business more than 20 years and says that she uses NEEM TREE OIL for spraying plants for insect protection. They sell it up there in pints and quarts and gallons. You mix the NEEM OIL with water and spray. That said; is there a market in the USA for large quantities in 55 gallon plastic drums of NEEM OIL and what would be the prices and who are the buyers. If we are going to jumpstart growing NEEM TREES in Belize we need some idea of the economics and marketing potential if any. May be University of Belize and Galen University for their AGRICULTURE BACHELOR DEGREE candidates can have their candidates for B SC. do a paper on the economics of world wide and countries that import NEEM TREE OIL? We have to change the paradigm of education in Belize and University is a good way to start?

Monday, November 29, 2010

BRAZIL HAS A LOT TO TEACH BELIZE ABOUT CHANGING CROPS AND SOILS TO MAXIMIZE PRODUCTION

http://www.economist.com/node/16886442

BRAZIL is teaching the Russians and the USA about scientific farming. Read the above article link. Fantastic changes in Brazil. They wasted 30 years importing USA technology and then started their own soil changing programs and plant breeding to local soils and climates. Now they surpass the rest of the world.

The Taiwanese have brought in an expert on growing orchids. He is doing tremendously. The ORCHIDS are propogated by Mr. Frank Lin from TAIWAN for the Taiwanese Mission here and Central Farm. Despite all the hoopla about University of Belize, or Galen University, no young student apparently wants to turn entrepreneur and get rich. Belize is located easily to export to Texas or Florida. The first by road and the second by ship. Mr. Lin has a climate controlled air conditioned greenhouse to grow his orchids. Normally a low budget grower would start in the lowlands and then take his orchids up to the highest Mountain Pine Ridge for cooler air, to help them bloom. That is the cheap way. The USA Market is wide open to this opportunity. The country seems to have no marketing trained experts who want to go into the business? Taiwan exports $30 million worth to the Western USA states. $30 million goes to the European Union and ships $15 million to Japan. Something in this equation is missing. The EXPORT entrepreneur with a ready made business, turn key, just waiting for a bright spark with gumption. The science is now old hat in Belize, but the ambition and drive is missing somehow? ___________________________________________

To the comment sent to me, that the problem is MONEY and RISK involved! Agreed! The government who wants this development and over a 1000 cane farmers in trouble could and should be growing and shipping orchids, are not. Even though the whole thing is feasabile. I don´t know if the Development Finance Corporation is in the product of capitalizing startups? They certainly are not interterpreting their mission goal that way. There is a total concentration by ALL government efforts based only on LOANS. That is ridiculous. We are losing our potential entrepreneur startups this way, basing a policy of growth and development through loans. Why don´t they concentrate on business plans, including the market and buyer, and empower the DFC to buy shares in experimental startups? They are going about development the WRONG WAY in BELMOPAN. This is what is called TRANSFORMATIONAL DEVELOPMENT and the clowns in BELMOPAN don´t understand you have to change the paradigm. These young people should be able to form a limited liability company based on a development BUSINESS PLAN and if they have a BUYER and a MARKET, then the first shipments for export in which you discover the problems with shipping and collecting your money, should be part of the expense of the learning process. They should be able to SELL SHARES to the DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION, not borrow money. The RISK is too high otherwise. We have two INDUSTRIES capable of taking off, making exports, the research on TILAPIA is now being done by CENTRAL FARM as to the economic feasability studies for TILAPIA and the exporting of FISH FINGERS. The second industry is the ORCHID production for both European and USA markets. There are a lot of problems to be solved yet in that industry potential. Boxing, packaging and freight and customs red tape in the USA. Collecting your money too. These are best done by RISK CAPITAL and it behooves the government to at least finance by buying SHARES in the first start up, until it is successful and then everybody else can copy, or use loans, or whatever. First you have to get over the development RISK and LEARNING hump. I´ve been there and done that. It is difficult and there are a number of failures before you make it and learn the tricks and ropes. Instead of blowing $10 million on cane farmers who will not help themselves, this money could be earmarked for the DFC and start up RISK CAPITAL speculation in NEW potential industries, to buy shares in the first Limited Liability Company. We have to bootstrap new industries and that is in the Govenment´s self interest to do so.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF BELIZE NEEDS NEW PARADIGM FOR EDUCATION AT PRIMARY SCHOOL LEVEL

Since over 11,000 children have no primary school to go to in Belize at all. ( Sugar cane farmers just took the school building budget in their bankruptcy deal ) and the rest of the children in overcrowded schools need a different kind of education in Standard 5 and 6. This would be Grade 7 and 8 in Canada. Due to the fact VERY FEW children get to go to HIGH SCHOOL, it behooves our nation to reform our way of EDUCATION due to limitations of teacher training, school budgets available and inability of parents to afford higher education from low incomes in rural parts.

Concentration needs to be on the THREE R's. READING - RITING - and RITHMETIC.In addition, considering that the new WORLD ORDER has now substituted the INTERNET and computers as learning and library teaching tools, then computers for Standard 6 are imperative. Where keyboard typing classes are taught with all fingers. Computer familiarity is also taught and most of all later in the year, HOW TO USE SEARCH ENGINES, to find subjects for higher learning. There are good coverage on the internet, a world library, with videos of learning, chat forums and specialty subjects. Better than any HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE, or UNIVERSITY can teach in most hands on practical subjects. You would still if you can afford it, go to higher tertiary education for formal academics, and specialty stuff like complicated math and science. But most children in Belize will NEVER go higher than Standard 6 primary school. It behooves us to teach them, how to use the new technological tools, that will allow them to improve their lives and earning power, by using the internet at primary school level. MANDATORY SUBJECTS!

Small as Travelers liquors is, they are going slowly into the big time abroad. They already export to three major large cities in the USA. They have just got a buyer importer in Canada and explained how the process for Canadian sales took SIX MONTHS to work out the red bureaucratic tape. The biggest item being, they had to have a bilingual ENGLISH and FRENCH label on their bottles. Foreign importers came down to Belize to see their operation and capacity. Consequently they now export to the USA and Canada. Still a small niche business for international people. What is happening is that TOURISTS like the stuff. Particularly the ONE BARREL RUM AND THE THREE BARREL RUM. The One Barrel Rum is the leading rum in ALL THE CARIBBEAN and has won some big awards and prizes. No headache afterward and a light rum that makes your tongue loose for social conversation with your tongue, but no hangover the next morning. Their Belize made VODKA is second to none in the world reputedly and compares easily with the best RUSSIAN VODKA'S.

Don´t remember who was making pepperoni in Belize. But all I see nowadays is the pizza small one inch diameter packages of pepperoni in the freezers in the Supermarkets. Not making pizza - I´m on a diet and trying to lay off all that baked crust stuff, that gives you a rubber tire of fat around the middle. I do though like that 3 or 4 inch diameter pepperoni slices somebody was making a few months back. I ate it all up, bought it out, or whatever and nobody is re-filling the stores with the larger size pepperoni. If anybody knows who is manufacturing pepperoni, tell them there is a customer searching now for weeks, every time I go in the store for MORE! I would also like the one inch diameter, 12 inch long, pepperoni sausage, if they could make some? I use these to nibble between meals and chew for a snack. Without anything else. Would like some smoked beef jerky strips too. Chewing stuff. I´ve been making my own beef jerky in the micro wave, but there doesn´t seem to be any butcher anymore in Western Belize TWIN TOWNS with one of those circular spinning cutting blades to cut meat. You can´t get thin slices to smoke, or salt, or dry to make JERKY. When I buy a $5 slab of meat, and cut with a knife the slices are to thick really. You need much thinner slices, cut on one of those meat slicing machines to do a good job. I´d rather just buy the finished product made by somebody else specializing in meat products.

The Neem Tree reads like a medicine cabinet of natural cures. I see people in India sell Neem oil, Neem leaf powder, Neem seed powder, Neem extracts,Neem flowers, Neem cake. I also see American companies are patenting a lot of Neem Tree characteristics.

THE QUESTION IN MY MIND, IS THERE ANY FUTURE IN BELIZE GROWING NEEM TREES? IS ANYBODY ACTUALLY EXPORTING NEEM TREE PRODUCTS? IF SO, WHICH COUNTRIES, WHAT PRODUCT AND AT WHAT PRICE?

Why would you grow wonderful useful NEEM TREES if there was no foreign market for it? Or any established buyer for a Neem Tree product.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

BELIZE GOVERNMENT BUYS ONE YEAR BREATHER WITH COLLAPSING SUGAR INDUSTRY

At the best case scenario the government of Belize has a one year breather with the collapsing sugar industry. With a bit of luck, they might get TWO YEARS.From the government point of view, the government revenues and economic inputs in the North of Belize are in danger. That should not let the politicians and the bureaucrats who manage and plan such things, be complacent about the immediate future. As the BOY SCOUTS motto says BE PREPARED! Let us assume we have ONE YEAR. What should the government do? For starters in preparation for the WORST, the government should IMMEDIATELY get a marketing team together, researching for a substitute crop to export to replace sugar. They then should be contacting experts in the field of processing said crop, or multiple crops and solving the requirements needed to satisfy marketing export requirements. Growing crops is the easy part, if there is an easy part. In our climate and with water, we pretty much can grow anything. Price, ease of shipment, packaging, processing and such things are the decision tree needed to do a selection. Maybe the government will diversify the NORTH? There probably will always be a sugar industry, but the future of the BSI Factory is very much in doubt to foreclosure. From the little published, the debts of the BSI factory, exceed the revenues that the government collects from the sugar crop. That is a difficult hole to dig one self out of. I look to see smaller companies growing sugar and with smaller sugar mills more suited to the more specialized operations. Secondly, I see the need for a 10 acre test plot, using modern irrigation management growing techniques to be sponsored by the Research Department of Central Farm Agriculture Department. To see just what is possible production done in Belize along optimum per acre lines for sugar. We don’t know the future and we cannot see where such preparations will lead. Maybe not to anywhere? The art of success is preparation for the worst and envisioning the worst case scenarios and your courses of action. As an old long time boat captain I can tell you such scenarios and planning become second nature to someone running around the reefs and currents of the Western Caribbean Sea. You have to know what you are going to do, and how you are going to do it, before it happens. When you are prepared, usually nothing happens and the worst calamity becomes neglible.

AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES DEPARTMENT OF BELIZE GRASP THE EXPERIMENTAL THORNS OF RESEARCH FOR COMMERCIAL TILAPIA PRODUCTION BY SMALL FARMERS.

Saw an interesting video advertising blurb, political in nature, showing some new cement ponds at some place called BISCAYNE ( where ever that is? ) Mr. Castro of Central Farm was quoted as the lead man. In my excitement I almost jumped in my truck to go and talk to them. But I see they have only just started. Central Farm Research station are producing fingerlings of TILAPIA for fish farmers in rural parts. This has got me excited. I'm definitely interested! I did notice from the video clips that they do not have pvc pipe on the bottom of the cement ponds, producing bubbles of air, to oxygenate the water. It is unlikely from the little I have heard, that sufficient pounds of TILAPIA can be produced for farmers based on stagnant water production. They are using chicken manure to produce algea as food and nitrogen in the ponds. To pack in commercial weight quantities you need oxygenated water. You can get this with a windmill charger, solar panel and a 3/4 inch JABSCO neoprene impeller type pump, to force air into the bottom of the tank ponds, with rising bubbles giving increased oxygen content to the fish growing in there. The pump itself is operated by a 12 volt battery. There was already some useful research on fish feed mentioned. Imported fish feed was .80 cents a pound and local produced fish feed ( a new industry for an entrepreneur here ) was quoted around .20 cents a pound. This is definitely the kind of thing to be researching. Stuff that is useful. They were also talking combining floating rafts of vegetables. Another way to go in research. I guess I'll wait to see if they are a little further along, before going to bother them. I want fish financial return commercial production figures per cubic yard of water, based on TIME to sales. The driving force behind this is Elected Representatives EDMUND CASTRO and Rene Montero. They are definitely on the right track to being useful. CONGRATULATIONS! Some research in packaging of fish fingers would be useful as well, for export products. Sort of like canned sardines. Though I would more think along lines of those metalic type wrappers used for chocolate bars, used nowadays. Believe they come from Taiwan in rolls, with printing on them. What kind of fish finger could you export? Salted, brined, or what?

Royal Creole, coastal lawyer Elrington, CABINET MEMBER, from Port town, the old colonial capitalof Belize. A Black Englishman in talk, education and actions. Cariform needs somebody different to present a new paradigm in the West Indies.

Elrington wrong choice for CARIFORM and CARICOM representative of Belize

Nothing against Elrington, a lawyer from the port of Belize City and a major player in the UDP CABINET. But saw something on the tv news last night that said he was going to be HEAD OF Caribbean CARIFORM, political something or other to do with Caribbean trade.

I feel at this juncture that Elrington is the wrong choice. These are my reasons why?

The port town of Belize is a set of lawyers who are for the most part ROYAL CREOLES. This is a CREOLE town, but Belize nowadays is a growing important role player both in Central American forums, world small country forums and in Caricom and CARIFORM the trade block.

The trouble with the Caribbean countries is that they are still mired in the COLONIAL education framework. The UK itself is losing EMPIRE and trade ground to become a 2nd class country. While the UK is going down, Belize is going UP in reputation. We pack a lot of weight nowadays in International affairs. We in this country are small country ROLE MODELS. The rest of the Caribbean are basket cases of failed states and political mismanagement. They can't help themselves in economical trade. They have no leadership and do not know how. The University of the West Indies failed to prepare them for globalization and economical change in education for commerce and trade.

I don´t like to introduce ethnicity and race here, but you will notice the CARIFORM and CARICOM countries are BLACK. They mimic the Europeans from which we have centuries of exploitation. Is there anything more nonsensical than to see Eastern Caribbean countries political leaders wandering around wearing European suits, white shirts with ties, in a tropical average 85 F temperature. Totally ridiculous how they mimic the Europeans. They might as well be Orangutans in a circus. Their economic and political performance reflects this.

Belize on the other hand, is a mixed race environment. We have many racial groupings. The majority of which is Spanish, Mestizo and Maya. If we in Belize wish to show our leadership and help our fellow CARICOM and CARIFORM brothers a way to progress, and believe me, we in Belize are now regarded as ROLE MODELS, even with a small population of 350,000 people in a small country. Then we shouldn´t be sending BLACK CREOLE ENGLISH copycats that dominate the politics of our small port town of Belize City. We should be sending somebody to break the mold in CARICOM and CARIFORM. Instead of sending a BLACK lawyer, known as a ROYAL CREOLE from that hotbed of useless people down on our coast, in the old colonial capital; we should send somebody DIFFERENT. Maybe BELIZEAN WHITE MENNONITE, ELVIN PENNER, who knows something about producing goods, instead of consuming imported goods, or our MAYAN, RENE MONTERO, or a half dozen other rural Western, or rural district elected representatives. We need a MAYAN, MESTIZO or SOMEBODY ELSE, of a different color_ background and educational practical experience. We can't send somebody that is a CLONE of all the others in the CARIBBEAN, WHO THINKS THE SAME AND ACTS THE SAME and talks the same. WE ARE NOT GOING TO HELP THEM THIS WAY.

PRIME MINISTER OF BELIZE HAS TWO MONTHS LEFT, TO MEET DEMANDS OF UNESCO LEGISLATION,TO DO WITH PROTECTING THE STATUS OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF OF BELIZE, AS A WORLD HERITAGE SIGHT. OTHERWISE WE WILL BE DE-CLASSIFIED.

This should interest McFEE, retired anti virus computer multi-millionaire in Belize. I hear he is dabbling in the herbal jungle cure business?

TALK SHOW on local TV was describing using green GUAVA fruit tree leaves as a cure for fungus of the feet and crotch. You grind up the leaves and mix them with hot water and soak your feet. Then wipe dry. Repeat as necessary. Cures ATHLETES feet and JOCK ITCH.

Got a blurb from Rendevous Restaurant and Winery. I believe they are in San Pedro Town? They are doing their part in fighting the predetations of the LION FISH now on the Great Barrier Reef, by serving Lion Fish fillet by this monstrous attack cannabalistic fish that is spreading through the Caribbean from USA Aquariums. I´m told the fish tastes a lot like GROUPER.

I'm also informed that the COBIA FISH FARM net operation went bust once financially. That they have been re-born and trying again. The fillets are being sold on the local scene. Cobia can grow up to a 100 lbs. Their hatchery is fantastic science and puts Belize on the world map for FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE.

Friday, November 26, 2010

During the past year, in particular the past eight months, we have succeeded in getting two internet ISP services, thus giving us back up redundancy. We also have two electrical supply systems, with a battery operated computer and a regular electrical main system. Consequently, we are now placed well to continue trading through thick and thin, in Foreign International Financial markets. Our specialty if it can be called that is CREDIT SPREADS, in derivative cash index trading. The trading up to a point went well. We learned and experimented and twice now, we reached the 56% return on investment target in four months each time, before getting wiped out in an adverse market reaction. So we have eight months active trading. We would have been over a 100% if we had stayed lucky. The next leg is to provide on the job learning, by diversifying to deal with adverse market reactions and program into the system, three months of expected losses in any given year. This third try, we are divesifying both to weekly and monthly CREDIT SPREADS, or in TIMED trades. Also diversifying by legging in at different levels. We have also added straight directional buying of options. How that will work out we don´t know yet. Be February or March before we have a clear idea on which of the four methodologies will work best. The ultimate goal is to have a FAMILY HEDGE FUND, high risk, but high returns. With the intention of paying out a dividend of 15% base and an extra 5% if possible as a bonus dividend on an annual basis. Still a lot of work to go yet though. Making progress, but just not enough.

For lovers of horse racing, the Triple Crown will be held November 27th and again January 8th and February 19th this winter. This is part of the horse tourism in Western Belize.

The races will be run in laps with periodic Vet checks. Digital heart monitoring. The races pay out 70% of the entry fees and awards. Lots of excitement for horse lovers. The location is Mile 53,at the Belize Equestrian Academy on the Western Highway in the Cayo District.

e-mail to: metbelize@pobox.com Or phone 663 4609

They also deal with horse tourism adventures and run trips to local Mayan ruins and cave systems.

MAURY BOYD of Florida, a citrus grower shows Agriculture Department and other growers up in Florida how to deal with Citrus Greening.

Considering our own Agriculture Department don´t have a clue on this subject yet, as they are recommending standard cut and destroy tree policies, it behooves somebody in the bureaucracy at Central Farm to go up there and learn first hand. Buy your selection of person a plane ticket Mr. Prime Minister and send him up there. Better than throwing our tax money at the BSI Factory.

Maury Boyd has 400 acres of Valencia citrus in Florida. He refused to destroy his trees because he was infected with Citrus Greening. World experts from all over the world are visiting him to see what he has done. ( except Belize Central Farm )

Back in 2005 and 2006 the bureaucrats up in Florida sounded the DEATH CERTIFICATE for his 400 acres. Maury proved them DEAD WRONG! The infected trees are still bearing good crops. He believed in nutrition and found adding boron and Turf Pro helped for instance. He also is a proponent of psyllid control. This means pesticides but he has since moved away from that and has gone to a psyllid-repellent system based on dimethyl disulfide ( DMDS ). This is used on GUAVA trees previously.What you are looking at is a spray system, computer controlled through the orchid. The system is used to add soil nutrients as well. You want a more complete article, read the BELIZE AG REPORT, ISSUE 9, out in November this year 2010. Or contact Dr. Thomas Mathew of Golden Stream Spice Farm/Botanical Gardens inthe Toledo District.

At the moment CORN is the biggest export going West into Guatemala, Salvador and Honduras by truck loads. Several times a yesr. Agriculture exports are changing.

What we need is the San Ignacio ITVET ( Community College ) to train some opportunity looking entrepreneurs who can handle export container loads.

There are two ways this can work. You can be an ordinary CUSTOMERS BROKER dealing with the cross border paper work and bureaucratic red tape, or you can be an AGENT middleman and make your own MARKET and make your deals for container loads of agriculture products in Belize to be sold in Central America. The latter course makes more sense from a profit sense.

Growers are growers. They do not have the time or bookkeeping patience to deal with the bureaucratic red tape. All the running around to Belmopan, diddling with Minister's permits and baksheesh, the BAHA certifications, Origination paper work, etc. Then if you consider doing BANK Letter of Credits for payment, for F.O.B in Spanish Lookout, or in Belize, there is golden opportunity here for a half a dozen agents in the years ahead.

If it was me, and I was younger I would be acting as a middleman agent, buying locally, ( on credit ) getting container loads and dealing in speculation, seeking my own markets for agricultural products out of Belize to Central America.

The ITVET here in San Ignacio needs to run courses in MARKETING using the telephone, by INTERNET, and creating your own secret buyer markets for Belize agricultural products. Any sharp High School graduate could learn how to do this.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS in Western Belize. A lot of new products are going to be exported in the next twenty years out of Belize. From orchids, to Neam oil, Nutmeg, pineapples, and even light manufactured products like solar cell panels. Do you know that Guatemala imports ALL their solar cell panels from China? You can make those easy in Belize. Nothing to it, at half the price. You would have to import the solar cells, but everything else in the assembly line can be done locally. We can even make WINDMILL chargers here for battery rural power. The world population growth is making commodities and products of all types that people need, harder and harder to get.

Some concerns have been raised by some citrus growers in the south about the destruction of their nurseries. They are saying that the reason given to them is because their nursery was not approved. Love News spoke with the Francisco Gutierrez who is the Technical Director for Plant Health at the Belize Agricultural Health Authority and Chairman of the Belize Task Force for Citrus Greening.

Francisco Gutierrez; Chairman, Belize Task Force for Citrus Greening

“The initiative currently being carried out by BAHA if for the removal of non-compliance nurseries operating in Belize at the moment for citrus. This has become necessary because since the discovery of the disease in Belize almost two years ago. We had put in place certain regulations that mandated that nurseries need to be produces under screened conditions. The previous regulations for citrus entailed that all citrus nurseries have to produce a certain way and registered with the Citrus Growers Association. Since the inception of the disease problem in the county the movement of plants was halted and later on released for nursery owners to move all their current stock. So happens that many nursery operators moved some of their plants but retained some and even went through the process of replanting or continuing to produce more plants to be distributed within the industry. There is a very high likelihood and it was also confirmed though laboratory testing that many of these nurseries are infected if not all because they are not protected with the appropriate screen.”

Gutierrez says that nursery operators have been informed about the legislation and were given enough time to remove their inventory.

Francisco Gutierrez

“They are now being informed in writing too that their nurseries need to be moved. We have had many meeting in the past with stakeholders; with nursery owners explaining to them that they couldn’t continue producing like this people just producing under this modality totally ignoring the requirements for nurseries. Despite the way it looks this is a very necessary measure we have to put in place if we want to protect the industry from further spread and devastation of this disease. Screening the nurseries is a necessity all over the world where citrus greening has been found.”

According to Gutierrez 70 to 80 non-complaint nurseries were found countrywide and the destruction process began last week. Love News spoke with CEO at the Citrus Growers Association Henry Anderson who says the nursery operators will be compensated.

Henry Anderson; CEO, CGA

“We are aware of it and we have been getting feedback from nursery owners about what has been happening. What CGA will be doing, CGA will be calling a meeting to meet with the growers to look at what has occurred. We have been doing some work screen nurseries, what we call comunit nurseries in place in the industry and also to identify lines of credit for larger nurseries to be able to switch from the open scenario to the screened nurseries. One of the obvious issues for the nursery owners will be the whole matter of getting back into it and compensation for the plants taken out. So we will be holding a meeting with them. CGA has a leadership role in the industry and when things like this happen we have to step up to the plate and assist in getting things back together. That is what we intend to do.”

BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES, THE UDP AND PUP APPROVE THE $10 MILLION LOAN TO BSI SUGAR FACTORY in Belize this past week in a House Sitting. There was little else the politicians could do. There are about 20,000 votes in the SUGAR NORTH controlling a number of seats in the House of Representatives. In their own interest in winning elections, both political parties had to vote to grant a $10 million dollar loan to bankrupt BSI SUGAR FACTORY, who in turn are financially overextended with bank loans to a couple of foreign banks, for monies and loans used to pay for the addition of a BAGASSE waste electrical generating subsidiary system added recently to the factory. The BSI Factory had spent the money held in ESCROW for sugar cane farmers payments, with their expansion project in co-generation in electricity building problems, apparently underestimated. This is believed to be now coming on line with some additional revenues from sugar cane waste in sold electricity to the National Grid. The farmers want the money they are owed NOW. The Factory have spent it. So they must borrow it somewhere. The gamble by the two political parties is that the other industries and voters in Belize, from whom the money is being stolen from their projects, will not rebel and vote them out of office come the next election. It is likely that the bridge over the Belize River to be built for the heavy 18 wheeler freight traffic going to Guatemala, will be postponed a few years. Certainly the extension of the highway system in Toledo South, to extend the Belize highway network to join with the Central American improved paved highway network, will have to be postponed, and of course there are bridges, and schools that now, will also not be built for about another five years. Certainly we cannot get a grader to grade the streets in my community of Hillview, which are full of gullies, ravines and deep holes making it almost impossible to negotiate with a vehicle. The government claims ‘ no money is there to do so ‘. Belize is a cash strapped country and some civil servant told me just last week, that we now owe about $3 billion dollars in foreign debt and local debt. For a population of 350,000 people that is a lot of debt. The UDP in power has been hiding the National DEBT since they came in office over the last two years. We cannot find published anywhere accurate figures on the economy, and the Debt to GDP ratio. The Prime Minister who also is the Finance Minister, hides the Debt to GDP ratio figure like it was the plague. Which for him and his party in power, I guess it is? He is afraid the knowledge of the Belize Debt would lose his party the next election and indeed it could if improperly handled. I fully expect the PUP in the OPPOSITION to jump on this as a campaign issue. From what has been published, it is not clear to me, who owns the BSI Sugar processing Factory? Certainly it is not the cane farmers. Otherwise they would not be insisting on bankrupting the BSI sugar factory even more than it is. The Factory from things the Prime Minister has said, has a $30 million debt to two foreign banks and this additional 10 million to be paid after the banks get theirs, will make the total Factory debt $40 million. The farmers have complained that their sugar cane is also going to make the factory more money from electrical generation from the waste bagasse, but they are not going to see the electrical revenues added to their sugar cane payments. Those profits will stay in whoever controls, or owns the BSI Sugar Factory. The farmers argue that in the end they are having to pay for the profits that the FACTORY will eventually enjoy, whenever they finish paying off the debts. If they ever do? The arguments go back and forth. The sugar crop is declining. Indeed, you could say it is in a fatal spiraling plunge like a jetliner at 40,000 feet that has lost it’s engines. The sugar cane farmer associations and the BSI Factory are two separate profit earning entities. One blames the other. The factory insists that the farmers produce more sugar cane with a higher sugar content. The problems with this as I an outsider understand it, is that the quality of the sugar in cane is lost in a number of hours after being cut, delivered and processed. The sugar content goes down as the moisture in waiting delivery trucks evaporates. There are long lines of trucks for miles waiting to be delivered with sugar cane. They sometimes wait two days and during that time, the sugar quality is lost. The farmers blame the factory. The Factory say they want a better cane farmer delivery system at the rate of 6000 tons a day. Farmers are in turn competitive among themselves and the ability to cut cane and deliver it, is dictated by weather conditions and availably of labor. The job hunting troublesome criminal population of the port of Belize City who cry to their politicians for jobs, will not go North and cut sugar cane. It is too hard work they say. At any rate, it has proved impossible to organize truck deliveries of sugar cane in an orderly manner, to keep the truck delivery system from over 3600 farmers in a timely manner to get the best quality sugar content. If the trucks have to wait in line for days, the crop quality goes down automatically. The factory and the farmers thus lose money and this is the end result for the dropping sugar production.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

China’s Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has called on banks to urgently offer special support to the agriculture sector in the face of severe shortages of corn, cotton and sugar, among other crops.

WHILE ROME BURNED,NERO FIDDLED!

Sugar cane farmers counting on $10 million government loan being turned into a GRANT in years ahead. But local population of Belize are irrate with the Prime Minister. While CHINA is short of SUGAR, our sugar industry operates in bankruptcy mode. A different solution is needed, than throwing our tax money down a BLACK HOLE like the mismanaged sugar industry. Taxpayers claim sugar cane industry count on government loans turning into GRANTS and have consumed hundreds of millions over the years. Tell them to turn profitable or go bankrupt and grow Neam trees, make a TEAK plantation or something?

Long after Hurricane Richard dissipated over Mexico, its after-effects continue to reverberate among residents of the Stann Creek Valley, which took the brunt of its power at landfall on October 24.

The citrus industry, which for some 113 years has been the backbone of the area’s economic development, has taken a major blow, right at the start of the 2010-11 crop season, after Richard blew over many citrus groves and tore down houses, leaving many families out of house and home.

Today, the Citrus Growers Association (CGA) met with about 40 of the most affected growers at its headquarters on the Stann Creek Valley Road, to update them on the official damage assessment estimate and take their individual assessments as part of a wider report designed to access needed funding for the expected recovery.

Some 80% of the forecast grapefruit crop (1 million boxes) for 2010-11, amounting to 803,000 boxes, and some 24% of the forecast orange crop (5.6 million boxes), about 1.3 million boxes, were lost on 282 farms in the Stann Creek and Cayo Districts from Jones Bridge at Silk Grass up to farms as far west as San Ignacio Town and as far east as More Tomorrow and St. Matthew’s. After plugging in the monetary values, the CGA came up with a final figure of $32.5 million, which does not include damage to citrus trees and recovered oranges and grapefruits.

The loss was heaviest in the upper Stann Creek valley, where in farms in Mullins River and Middlesex as many as 100% of certain groves were wiped out.

Richard landed on Belize’s shores just three days after the start of crop season 2010-11, and while the factories are taking in recovered mature fruit, the loss of immature fruit still represents a missed opportunity for the growers.

But the hardiness of the orange/grapefruit tree and its natural response to adversity lead the CGA’s agronomists to suggest that 2011 and 2012, if the growers hurry to take advantage of the opportunity, may see bumper crops of oranges and grapefruits and an earlier-than-expected recovery for the industry.

With that hope firmly in mind, Eccleston Irving, newly appointed chairperson of the CGA Committee of Management, and Association CEO Henry Anderson led the growers through a discussion of the Association’s plans to assist growers in the short and long term.

According to Irving, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is being lobbied for assistance to help replace lost trees, and a fertilizer program, it is hoped, will hit the ground running if the Association can get commitments from the Social Security Board, Development Finance Corporation and some major lenders from abroad, including the Latin American Development Bank, which has met with CGA executives, and OIRSA, which donated a $200,000 greenhouse system to replace the one damaged at the CGA compound.

The CGA’s revolving fund will be making small grants to growers for immediate assistance, and in addition to requiring no payments into the fund for a short period, the Association will lobby SSB and DFC to restructure the facilities of certain growers and secure a loan for assistance for others.

Another worry is the reappearance of citrus greening, which the Association hopes to combat with assistance for vector control.

Growers largely approved of the Association’s plans, but many need humanitarian assistance as well and complain that the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) has been largely silent since the hurricane. (We spoke to a few of them and will have more in a separate story.) They also lost other crops, including nutmeg, plantain, pineapple, coconut and others.

Amandala asked Anderson to compare Richard’s destruction to that of Hurricane Iris, which hit the south Stann Creek/Toledo area in October of 2001, and the floods caused by Tropical Depression 16 in October of 2008. He stated in response that Richard more directly affected the citrus industry, because of where it made landfall, than Iris did.

According to Anderson, Iris, which was a major (Category 4) hurricane with winds at about 150 miles per hour, hit too far south to affect more than a few citrus farms, while Richard steamrolled through the very heart of the Valley and caused much damage, despite being a minimal (Category 1) hurricane with top winds of 90 miles per hour, and held its power throughout its passage over Belize.

In related industry news, the CGA is disputing the first price submission of 2010-11 by Citrus Products of Belize Limited (CPBL) for $10.63 per box of oranges after determining that CPBL had broken an agreement to use a specific closing date for the international market price. The day CPBL chose happened to coincide with the bottom of the market before it started inching up. Rival Belize Citrus Mutual (BCM) has accepted the submission, but the CGA is holding out for a higher price and is currently in negotiations.

For a few months now we have a squatter bat. In the battle of wills between the bat and us, the bat so far has won. During the day he or she likes to hang on a wooden wall in the third floor hallway. Would have no objection, except he or she, poops all over the place and I can't get the weekly cleaning lady to clean the droppings up. I´ve tried using the garden hose, spraying with water and he flies away, but goes no futher than the second floor and settles to hanging on the wall there. The bat is very intelligent. When I come out of my computer room, he is watching me. If I or my wife reach down for the garden hose in the old nursery,he is gone in a flash. Otherwise he ignores our walking past, up and down the stairwell. ____________________________________________CONTRIBUTED REPLY FROM CANADACanadian ponderings:With great amusement, I was reading your bit about the "native wild pets" which adopted you.I hear bats are very beneficial, they will eat up to 1000 mosquitoes every hour after dark. (Of course the fruit and vampire bats are a different story, you just have to attract the right kind).You are right, they are very intelligent. I love these smart little creatures. Some years ago, when I got fed up with the stinging bugs, I put up a bat house at my barn. Every night, when I go out at dusk to close up the barn, they accompany me all the way back to the house. Often there are dozens of them flapping around me, seemingly saying good night Open-mouth smile.I must say that the mosquito situation has much improved since I got the bat house.

My suggestion for you is if you don't want that bat in your house, provide appropriate lodging for it (and it's friends which are out there) on the outside on one of your buildings, preferably on the north side and under an overhang of the roof. They do not like to be baked in the midday sun when they are sleeping. This probably explains why your little friend prefers your hallway to sleep the days away at, which is presumably a cooler environment than whatever else is available outside. The bats won't pay you rent, but will reward you with a near bug free environment.It is a great blessing to have the creatures around, especially in a country like Belize (the Switzerland of the Americas) which is plagued by malaria and dengue fever. I think that everyone in Belize should have a bat house or two close to their dwelling to give some competition to the caves of Belize as bat dwellings - nature will work in your favour if you let her!Here is a website with some bat house building instructions, if you would be so inclined as to get yourself one:http://www.fws.gov/Asheville/pdfs/beneficialbats.pdf You can use any kind of scrap wood available, but don't forget to staple some sort of mesh, like screening or hardware cloth, on the inside surfaces for the little guys to hold onto, some hardwoods can be quite slippery and they don't like to fall off in their sleep.

As tarantulas go, I have a question: you are mentioning plate size - what diameter are we talking about???When I was working in the pet shop we had cute little ones, like the size of my palm or smaller. I was the only one brave enough to pick them up for the purpose of showing them to prospective customers. The are creepy looking by human standards, but on closer examination they display an eerie exotic beauty.

Another question comes to mind: how do the tourists react to these "pets" coming into the buildings?Here in Canada people would be hysteric about that. In the newspaper I read periodically of a pet tarantula or a pet boa constrictor getting lost in a high-rise buildings ducts and people are becoming so worked up over it that it makes the front page of a major paper.If they would inform themselves, they would find out that these animals are completely harmless.

On the other hand - the eco tourists you get over there are probably much more relaxed and informed than the silly city people in Toronto.Boy, I can't wait until I get to visit Belize next year.

Last week we had a very big Tarantala spider walking around the living room again. Normally we pick them up with an empty OATMEAL food container, saved for frogs, toads and tarantalas. They are supposed to be good as pets. Never tried it. I´ve found since living in Western Belize about three times a year for a few days, we get tarantulas wandering around the office and living room. Being the tropics we have no weather stripping on the bottom of the front door. I am guessing they come through on some sort of migration. It used to bother my wife some years ago. But nowadays the migration doesn´t bother her. Usually we scoop them up with the OATMEAL container, slap the lid on and go outside and toss them into the weeds of the abandoned house next door, across our fence. Let them go on their merry way. Last couple of days I missed the couple wandering around the living room. I understand they are intelligent. They can move fast when they want, or are being chased. They quickly avoided my container and escaped into the bookcase at floor level. I left them alone. Usually never see them again after that anyway. Have no idea where they are going.

Fantastic article starting on the cover of the growing famous Belize Ag Report,to do with the science of the COBIA fish farming hatchery in Belize. As a former Marine Biologist ( self taught ) and former publisher of 3 booklets on British Honduras Commercial Fishing stocks,( still classics, but out-of print ) the technical aspects of the Fish Hatchery article in the recent Ag Report were way over my head. The science read more complicated than that of astro physicists, tackling the more simple problem of landing a MARS lander on the planet Mars. I learned a lot of new things. The only thing I knew about COBIA was that it was a fish found on the Pacific Coast of Central American countries. In the article they say it is found locally on this Caribbean side. Never having caught, or seen this pelagic fish before in my 55 years to do with commercial fishing I found that fascinating. The COBIA is a pelagic fish. Meaning it is always swimming and will strike only food that is moving. Like cats, the instinctive reaction is strike a movement. If you sit still, the fish is not interested. The article in the AG Report is by Feucht/Robinson. The research excellent and informative for the hatchery part of this COBIA FISH FARMING project. I´m still wondering how the fish farming project survived when Hurricane Richard passed directly over them recently. There has been no media reports, film, stories or photos. I only hope they survived as a commercial operation. We need more of this in Belize. There is a lot of complicated technical scientific detail in the article, which is to be continued next issue of the Ag Report. I can only admire and gape with my mouth open in AWE at the science involved. This has got to be SECOND TO NONE for science anywhere in the world. They have a fascinating process at the hatchery,( about 15 miles South of Belize the port ) which has to go through some very sensitive TIME spaced windows of opportunity, to be successful. The biology is out of this world, at least for me. What I found really neat, was that COBIA are genetically born to only strike a moving food target. The fingerlings have to actually go through a Community College FISH EATING training educational course to learn to eat from food pellets. Mind you we are not teaching humans here, we are teaching FISH to by-pass their inherited genetic survival traits that are hard wired into their brains. The process is called WEANING. They are taught to recognize food pellets as natural food and learn to strike them with their mouths, or they would in a fish farming environment otherwise die of starvation. There is a long 15 to 16 day process, carefully TIMED, to induce spawning and fertilization by males. The window for fertilization is only one minute by the male. On a par some women say with their husbands. ( joke! ) The resultant eggs are harvested 12 hours later as they float in the tank. This occurs at SUNDOWN. The sun goes down in the tropics very rapidly. About a 20 minute window.The eggs hatch in 24 hours at 86 F temperature. I myself do not like swimming in water less than 82 F. Cell division occurs in another 12 hours and you have an embryo and in another 12 hours you get your larvae stage. The larvae feed on the yolk sac for about 3 days. These infant fish then feed on a tiny algea like product similar to plankton. The whole thing is measured in micron sizes. They then are fed ARTEMIA,or brine shrimp. Very small pieces about 160 to 400 microns,which in turn are hatched from dehyrdated cysts and are commercially made and imported. You stick them in water from a can of the cysts they hatch immediately. The process of going from metamorphosized larvae over 10 days to post metamorhposized larvae which takes 10 to 25 days post hatch,to a fingerling takes 30 to 40 days. Once on pelleted feed they become juveniles. Whoever figured this biology out are a genius, for commercial operation. In 30 days they weigh about 1 gram. They are cannabilistic. By 40 to 50 days they are 3 to 4 grams in weight. This Belize COBIA hatchery produces 200,000 fingerlings a year. They could easily produce a million fingerlings. COBIA was selected for the meat. They are one of the fastest weight gaining fish in the world. They gain weight three times faster than Atlantic Salmon. I can hardly wait to get the next article from AG REPORT on this fish farming operation. From here they are going to describe the netted fish farming system. Man o Man! Wish I was younger, I could sure get into this sort of thing as a commercial enterprise. Wonder if they sell shares of stock in the company? The opportunities for business in Belize are endless.

POPULATION EXPLOSION IN BELIZE AND AROUND THE WORLD My brother-in-law recently coming back from Bogota had some interesting things to say about the population explosion as it effected Bogota. I haven´t been to Bogota for six years thereabouts. The last time I was there it was a city of 6 million. He describes the new city as covering the former SAVANAH, the Bogota plateau farm country now. Places he used to drive to for a country rural outing that would be done in a few hours, are now part of the expanding metropolis. Which now has a population of 10 million, an expansion of 4 million in just 6 years. Factories and industries expanding like crazy, mostly with European capital investment. The traffic is horrendous and civil engineering for roads and highways have everything blocked all around the huge metropolis, as the government of Colombia try to build the infra-structure. To think, 70 years ago, the city was about 50,000 people. He got his dentist work done, for half the price it costs in Santa Elena Town in Belize. He also brought me a new pair of bi-focals. The optometrist in Bogota raised the price from $25 USA to $30 USA. Compared to Belize those prices were dirt cheap. Rod a neighbor in Hillview was visiting yesterday and noticed all my three pair of bi-focals on my trading room computer desks and was admiring them. He asked how much they cost and he was astounded. How can he got a set he wanted to know? We are all familiar with the slow bureaucracy in the Belize government. Well my brother-in-law was trying to collect Social Security from over there. He spent six weeks, struggling with the bureaucracy. For a few weeks, nobody at the clerical level could even find his records. Then he got to a supervisor one week, who quickly found his records. Then he was told it would take 3 months to get his file processed and he was running out of money and had to leave and return to Belize. He has asked his old girlfriend to keep checking with Social Security for him. So beaucratic delays are not only found in Belize for you complainers.

There are articles all over the press locally and internationally on the internet, both for and against, the changeover from native seeds that have evolved to suit local climatic conditions, versus the International seed supply corporations like MONSANTO that are trying to get a chokehold on the world's food supply through patents and bio engineering. Most of the opinions and the government in Belize is for self sufficiency and staying with local native seeds. Prohibiting the importation of GMO seeds into Belize.

John tells of the travails with his local corn crop and the effect on the corn crop locally from EARWORMS, that gained entry through the tassel because of the rains. The corn crop was down about 12%. He describes in an article in the November issue No. 9 of the Ag Report, a trip by a group to Honduras recently. You can go by plane, or road ( in 8 hours ), and seeing a test plot in Honduras of GMO corn next to a plot of native corn. The native corn was effected by the earworm, whereas the GMO crop had no earworms. The subject is a lot more complicated than that, particularly the point about International SEED Corporations attempting to put a LOCK on the world food supply.

IT IS PROJECTED THAT CORN PRICES WILL INCREASE A 100% OVER THE NEXT FOUR YEARS. This is good news for Belizean corn growers. The reasons were involved. A lot has to do with the use of corn for ethanol production in the USA, which enjoys subsidies for export. The weather in Russia and effects on their grain crop another. Population in the world continues to explode, with no wars, or large disease epidemics to bleed off large increases in population growth.

If you trade commodities, the financial traders are saying that a lot of commodity prices will increase over the next BULL MARKET CYCLE in economic technological change which covers pretty much the next four years.

Civil Servants in a secret private meeting OFF THE RECORD lament the system of government we have in Belize!

There was an hour's confab on the political system of our government and the way it does not operate to the benefit of the country. Essentially all present agreed that the the political system is nothing more than an elected 5 year dictatorship Corrections were discussed. Among which an elected SENATE was one item on a staggered basis to the representative elections. The party system as it exists is nothing but a gang of thieves, led by the gang leader, called the Party Leader, who automatically becomes DICTATOR of the country for five years. Even the gang members ( elected representatives ) are subject to the whims of the gang leader, or will suffer cash penalties. This is a one man ruled government. Nobody present liked it. Another general agreement was that the Opposition party, the PUP were even a worse gang of thieves and until they get another generation of representatives, they stand no chance of getting into office again. The current PUP gang being regarded widely as criminals. The system of government which is one man ( dictatorship) rule for five years, with advice from his gang members as elected representatives in the Cabinet was found not in the best interests of nation building, or operations. Pointed out that the SHAM of the Parliament, or Legislature and Senate were just RUBBER STAMP BODIES. They served no useful function. Even all the so called quasi institutions, committees, commissions, etc., who are supposed to operate independently, it was pointed out are actually IN FACT, controlled and run by the DICTATOR for five years. The majority seats and appointments being approved only by the DICTATOR. In normal operating terms, the quasi so called independent organized bodies can do their own thing, but in any critical juncture, they must come to the heel and demands of our elected dictator. The whole system of government in Belize was a CHARADE it was unanimously agreed. I didn´t find anything new in the discussion that hasn´t been discussed and concluded over the past 25 years, ad nauseum. What one can do about it was not decided.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

COLLAPSING SUGAR INDUSTRY TO GET $10 MILLION LOAN, WITH ONLY $4 MILLION SECURITY FROM PEOPLES TAXES.

The traditional BANK financing a collapsing sugar industry has withdrawn from future sugar industry loans. Atlantic Bank is rumored to have offered to do some financing at big commercial interest rates. The sugar industry no longer has any security to offer for bank loans. The last factory piece of land that is not mortgaged is to be offered by the sugar industry to government for a loan that has increased from $1 million to $10 million. The land the PM said is alleged to be worth $4 million. There is some doubt about that and skeptics claim more like a $140,000 valuation.

Taxpayers look at the speech of the Prime Minister with horror! Essentially, the fishing industry, the banana industry, the tourist industry, the citrus industry, the cacao industry, the cattle industry and other industries of the nation have to pour their tax money into a losing proposition with the sugar cane industry. The industry participants have been unable, to make their industry profitable in a year of the highest world prices ever. The Prime Minister Dean Barrow, qualified his decision making process that the North of Belize constitutes 3600 families in the sugar business and if it is at all humanly possible, we should try to keep them going. Considering Edmund Castro, of his political party, blew $5 million building a dirt road across a lagoon, and in the previous administration Ralph Fonseca blew another $5 million of taxpayers money on an idiotic government hedging operation, while trying to experiment and learn finance while dealing with sharks in the outside financial world. The claim of the Prime Minister is not without reason. Compassion and the desire to turn around the sugar industry is a desirable objective. We did elect the Prime Minister to make such decisions.

There are reservations though. The Prime Minister has not insisted that the monies being loaned with insufficient security, with enough safeguards or direction, or rules to change the behavior pattern of the 3600 families growing sugar cane, to make a difference. His speech justifying the loan was based on wishful thinking and HOPE. A gamblers decision!

Is this the last season of the sugar industry in Belize? Probably, but if not it surely is close to the end.

The problems in a nutshell, are quality of a) cane sugar content. b) The amount of mud the farmers are delivering with the sugar cane and c) the delivery times, as an outsider like me listens to the stories and explanations on the news.

As taxpayers we spend considerable millions in maintaining the infra-structure of roads, so farmers can deliver their cane. We in turn as a government and a people borrow money from abroad to do so in scarce foreign exchange. I could more see the Agriculture Department being given the $10 million to produce a pilot plot of 10 acres in properly irrigated and fertilized cane field to prove or disprove the outside experts claim that the crop production total can be increased by 1200 % on the same land, if done properly according to their advice.

The story of sugar and citrus is closely parallel, to do with the way small farmer associations operate, and the way they bleed off money from their centralized factories, making both their factory and the associations bankrupt, both factory and association, by making their industry unprofitable through greed and incompetence. While the citrus factory is currently seperated by company investment rules from the CGA and the profitability can only be guaranteed by a foreign investor by buying, or by having raised capital through sales of SHARES in the factory. It would seem the sugar industry has no similar system. If the Citrus Growers Association get control of the citrus factory, you can kiss that foreign investment goodbye too! They will revert to bankruptcy loan borrowing policies to satisfy short term needs. The cane farmers need to form share holding companies, putting up their land and production in a joint effort to raise the capital they need, instead of continuously operating under a cloud of bank loan debt system. Capital is there for the taking, but you have to restructure how the cane industry and small grower associations work and turn them from small farmer feeding frenzies based on immediate need and gratification to a profit orientated motive. It can be done, but $10 million with no strings attached is not going to do it. ( just my opinion )

I can understand your frustration over government monies wasted on unprofitable operations like many of the sugar cane farms.

Here is a question: Is it possible to use the money to help the farmers improve?

One could stipulate that help is only available for those farms who are willing to help themselves.My guess is that a lack of capital is one of the obstacles cane farmers face if they want to better their production.Instead of throwing the money away without any long term effect, the government could offer very low interest loans to farmers who are using the loans for improvements, like irrigation systems to increase production or methods to improve quality.

This is called an incentive program. Many countries do that with all aspects of the economy.A good example is Canada which has been offering federal grants to people who make their homes run more energy efficient by installing high efficiency appliances and equipment. There are also incentive programs to produce "green" energy like solar or wind.In the farming industry various governments use incentive programs to get farmers to grow the kinds of crops they think they need (just think of the corn subsidies of late).

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Word was this past week, that the Prime Minister was going to help out the cane farmers with a million dollars of tax revenues. Even if it was a loan, I sure hope it is not a true rumor. The reasoning is this: the cane farmers are unprofitable the way they currently grow and harvest cane. 85% of them should be farming something else. They are unprofitable and unable, or unwilling to change. You can´t change human nature by offering them a crutch. A million dollars of tax revenues is just a drop in the bucket and might secure some votes, but would be a detriment to the cane growers. No matter how they cry. There comes a time, you must cut the apron strings, take away the government crutch from people that will not help themselves. There is no fear the sugar industry would be destroyed. It only takes 15% of the cane farmers who do produce cane properly, to equal the current crop size in quantity and quality, if they take the advice of the experts from other countries, it is said. Some people shouldn´t be fishing, or growing sugar cane. It is plain and simple. Human nature says, we should let the sugar industry consolidate and find which are the better players. If PM BARROW wants to help, it would be in the form of an alternative market with another export crop. Such crops exist, just search. That is what the internet is for. The 15% or 20% left would do a much better job if they modernize technically. Helping losers only delays the agony and probably will carry down the good growers unnecessarily. If the PM wants to help the cane farmers, there are a couple of thousand of them that need to be growing something else. THEY SURE CAN´T GROW CANE PROFITABLY. The remaining growers who adapt, need to form a company, not an association. Then they could raise capital by selling shares in their business. Then we trade the shares on the Belize Stock Exchange. This borrowing money has to stop.

A few weeks ago I mentioned the BTB taking out quite a few ads in travel mags with a reader response option. I received a 2010 guide and I'm glad to report they did a pretty good job. The large brochure is an overall guide to the main types of activities in the country with lots of nice, large photos. The smaller booklet gets down into detail with loads of phone numbers and web addresses for various hotels and resorts listed by district. It also has detailed information on the major tourists sites and places of activity. They also sent a tourist map, which I don't believe they have sent before with their response packages. Many countries do not send such maps with their guides and they should. This one is very detailed for all the major tour locations and the back of the map has more info for the sites on the front (as well as general information on things such as weddings, eco-tourism, diving, etc.). Let's hope for a good 2010-2011 season.

European direct flights now by-pass USA to Central American adventures for tourism.

GATWICK U.K. to Cancun, Mexico, by British Airways, then a 4 hour bus ride just North of Belize opens up the small country of Belize to British tourism.

IBERIA AIRLINES from Madrid, Spain, to Guatemala City, now allows Spanish tourists to reach Belize by bus from Guatemala City in 8 hours. Cheap too.

( from the Belize Culture listserve )

Central America: Tricky territory? Not these daysNew links and routes are making it easier to get around CentralAmerica. Mark Rowe reports

Sunday, 21 November 2010AFP

For a part of the world where you can see the Caribbean and thePacific Ocean in the same day, and explore pre-Columbian ruins andlisten to unusual birdsong in cloud forests, Central America remains asurprisingly low-key destination. But all that is starting to change.

Despite the global recession, the region – which includes Belize,Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama –has seen an increase in visitor numbers and a succession ofinfrastructure developments that will make it easier to get aroundthan ever before are nearing completion.

Partly in recognition of these trends, major airlines now fly morefrequently to the region, and without laborious flight itineraries viathe southern United States or Mexico. This month, British Airways(ba.com) will start direct twice-weekly flights from Gatwick to Cancunin Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, shortening the time required to reachneighbouring Belize. Last month, Iberia (Iberia.com) launched a directservice four times a week from Madrid to Guatemala City and SanSalvador, the capital of El Salvador.

From San Salvador, travellers will be able to take connecting flightsto other destinations such as Managua in Nicaragua and the Hondurancities of San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa. Iberia has also justlaunched a direct service to Panama City from Madrid, opening up thesouth of the region to visitors.

Meanwhile, more inter-regional flights are being laid on. Tacaairlines (tacaairlines.co.uk) is offering new routes joining Centraland South America and the US. The airline, which has hubs in San Jose,Costa Rica, San Salvador and El Salvador, has flights to Colombia fromSan Jose and to Orlando from Guatemala City.

New hotels in Panama include the Hotel Riu Panama Plaza (riuplaza.com), in the heart of Panama City's financial district, which openedin September, and the Breezes Resort & Spa Panama (breezes.com), inthe Santa Clara region, two hours from Panama City on the Pacificcoast. Elsewhere, new openings include the 18-room Hotel BoutiqueContempo (contempohb.com) in Nicaragua's capital Managua, and theHotel Camino Real (caminorealantigua .com.gt) in the colonial city ofAntigua Guatemala.

The conversion of the Pacific corridor, which runs for 2,000 milesfrom Panama to Mexico, into a reliable highway by 2015 should removeand reduce bottlenecks. A new highway linking San Jose and Puntarenason the Gulf of Nicoya in Costa Rica now saves travellers up to an houron the journey. Work on a new airport at San Juan in southernNicaragua ends next summer and will have capacity for 18-seaterplanes. But the biggest project of all is the eight-year, $5bnexpansion of the Panama Canal.

Some of these projects are funded by major international donors suchas the World Bank; others are driven by a realisation of the value ofthe tourist dollar, and there is also a wider local drive for greaterintegration, known as the Mesoamerican Project, which, among otherthings, is likely to make border crossings less complicated. "Tourismplays such a large part in their economies that they are looking toinvest in services, flight routes, roads, restaurants and otherfacilities for tourists," said Laura Rendell-Dunn of Journey LatinAmerica. "The countries are smaller than in South America, so theydon't have the extensive bus systems or flight routes, but thetransport system is improving in leaps and bounds. The direct flightto Panama will make a huge difference. Before this you had to go viaGuatemala City or San Jose in Costa Rica.

"Each country is different. Many have Mayan ruins that have yet to beexcavated, or huge temples that peep through the tree canopy. And,because there are still not many tourists, you feel like you areheading off the beaten track while, for honeymooners, there are a lotof boutique hotels overlooking the Caribbean."

The numbers for travellers to the region have been robust during thepast couple of years. JLA sent 3,100 passengers in 2009 compared with1,600 in 2006. According to data from Latina Marketing, the number ofvisitors to Central America increased by 6 per cent to 1.5 million in2009. Of these, 151,000 were from Europe, a rise of 4 per cent year onyear, and 19,900 were from the UK.

"Belize has a good road network and road signs that make using a hirecar a doddle, but there is also a comprehensive flight network thatlinks all the major lodges. You can now charter a two-seater for alittle under $350 to take you anywhere," said Rafe Stone, JLA productmanager for Central America.

"Smaller projects, such as a fast boat out to the Bay Islands from LaCeiba in Honduras, make for efficient transfers between the islandsand the mainland. El Salvador has some of the best roads in theregion, with freeways enabling you to get from one side of the countyto the other very swiftly, and there have been improvements inNicaragua on roads in rural areas like Matagalpa," he added.

"Of course, the dirt tracks and wooden dugouts will remain and willalways be part of the fun when travelling in this part of the world."

WHAT AGRICULTURE PRODUCT WILL REPLACE FAILING SUGAR IN THE NORTH OF BELIZE? Do you think GINGER, HABANEROS, or PINEAPPLES or something like that will replace SUGAR in the North of Belize? What will be the next big export crop? That is the question that government politicians and bureaucrats and farmers in the North are contemplating. Essentially the SUGAR business in Belize is dead. Primarily because the farmers cannot get themselves organized to improve quantity and quality of cane production. We are seeing the death throes of the industry established to colonial exploitation rules now. The problems are not ALL of their ( small cane farmers ) own making. The European Union has cut subsidies, tariff protection has been canceled, or on the way out. The cane farmers of the North have lost $15.4 million more this year, due to the European Union price cuts. No attempt apparently has been made by the factory to add value to the product by selling packaged sugar and export to markets like China, Arab countries and Japan. We cannot even produce enough sugar to sell to the USA anymore. The commercial banks will no longer lend seasonal start up money for the coming sugar crop. The Prime Minister, Dean Barrow, while blasted by his OPPOSITION PARTY LEADER, Johnny Briceno, as having no business and economic sense, the PM is in fact doing, by not doing, the SMARTEST THING he can do. That is keeping political and government meddling out of the SUGAR and CITRUS industry and let the private sector solve their own problems. Agriculture must diversify and that is a good thing. With the internet and all those smart marketing academics coming out of our local Universities, the opportunities are endless. Consolidation is going on in both industries, both CITRUS and SUGAR. In sugar, I look to see the number of cane producers reduced to larger scale operations by buy outs of land, or leasing. 10% of the existing cane producers can produce the same output or more than the current thousands of small farmers. Smaller land areas using irrigation will out produce the current old methods the experts say and by example in other places at a volume of 12 to 1. In the end: determination, the WILL and money is going to consolidate the sugar industry into being once again a viable economic export crop. With the cut off of preferential tariffs and the lack of support by small cane farmer groups to improve their own production and quality through agricultural technological change, the industry as it exist right now is just dead, or dying. It will probably recover, but in a changed different form. In the meantime, small Northern farmers better search for a new crop and way to organize themselves, to produce something else for export. That is the future, the survival of the fittest. You learn to adapt and change, or perish. Ask the English in the U.K. who built their economy of the recent quarter century around North Sea Oil and are now counting on the oil from the Maldives ( Falkland Islands ) shelf to replace the lack of North Sea oil now gone. The UK failed to adapt to changing economics and technological production. The days of EMPIRE are gone, at least THEIR EMPIRE.